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Floor-mounted Gantry – Quality testing cheese in a safe environment

Problem

Murray Goulburn needed to be able to access 20kg boxes of cheese for quality testing and grading. This needed to be a random test, so each time the operator would need to access a box in a different location on the pallet.

Due to the layout of the workspace, the gantry could not be roof mounted, but needed to be out of the way of forklift traffic passing nearby the testing area. Additionally, the environment was a cool room to keep the cheese at optimal temperature.

Solution

Bomac designed a cantilevered bridge gantry crane with posts up against the walls and out of the way of the forklift traffic. The crane was also installed higher than the height of the forklifts to ensure there were no accidental collisions.

The crane was fitted with a vacuum lifter which had a tilting foot so that the operator did not have to rotate the box to get to the opening. Additionally, Bomac provided a spring-loaded, rotatable pallet stand. With these tools in place, an operator could lift a box from any position on the pallet, without bending or straining, and move it to a bench to open and test the cheese.

Outcome

The system in place allowed the operator to ergonomically access a box from a different location on the pallet each time to ensure sampling would be random. The combination of gantry crane, tilting vacuum foot and spring-loaded rotating pallet stand kept the operator safe from injury.

The tall crane design with the cantilevered long travel rails ensured that the unpacking area and the nearby forklift traffic were safe from collision with one another.

The overall system ensured that the end consumer could expect cheese of the highest quality.